Op-ed: Out and proud: Black gay trailblazers

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By Keli Goff

The Root

By thanking her longtime girlfriend on social media on Sunday, ABC's "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts joined a list of influential celebrities and public figures who made history by being among the first black Americans in their respective fields to come out as gay. Here is a list of others

Glenn Burke: Burke is credited with many things, including having a highly successful Major League Baseball career and inventing the high five, but most notably for being the first MLB player to come out - after he retired in 1980, which was no small feat for someone who played in the 1970s.

Bayard Rustin: There would have been no March on Washington in 1963 without Rustin, one of the most influential political organizers of the civil rights movement. Besides his work as an activist, Rustin was also significant for being an LGBT trailblazer.

Sheryl Swoopes: Swoopes, the first WNBA player to have a Nike shoe named after her, became one of the highest-profile athletes to come out in 2005. At the time she said, "Male athletes of my caliber probably feel like they have a lot more to lose than gain 'by coming out'. I don't agree with that. To me, the most important thing is happiness."

Don Lemon: Before Roberts' announcement, Lemon became one of the first high-profile black news personalities to come out as gay with his memoir, "Transparent," in 2011.

Jason Collins: By announcing that he was gay in a Sports Illustrated cover story in April of 2013, Collins became the first openly gay male athlete playing a major sport to come out in a while.

Wanda Sykes: Sykes, well known for her comedic roles in film and television, became one of the first black female celebrities in Hollywood to acknowledge that she is gay at the height of her success. She used the announcement as an opportunity to lend her support to the fight for same-sex marriage.

Lee Daniels: Daniels is the first openly gay mainstream black director to achieve commercial and critical success in Hollywood and was recently named Out magazine's artist of the year.

Frank Ocean: In 2012 Ocean became the first prominent male artist in the hip-hop world to indicate that he did not identify as straight. The support he garnered from other high-profile artists in the hip-hop world was seen as a major step forward for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

E.J. Johnson: Johnson's acknowledgment that he's gay, followed by his father Magic Johnson's public support of him, may end up having a profound influence on how other families, particularly in the black community, react to their own relatives' coming out.

Keli Goff is The Root's special correspondent.

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